Here is a lovely story of how Hypnobirthing helped new dad Andrew through the wonderful birth experience of their baby Noah. Read it from a dads view and find out how hypnobirthing can give great advice for dads during labour. Read more

Last month on May 5th, it was International Day of the Midwife 2017. Since then the new mums of Norwich and Norfolk have been voting for this year’s ‘Norwich & Norfolk Midwife of the Year Award’, sponsored by The Orange Grove Clinic and YogaBumps. Read more

Our very own Hypnobirthing practitioner, Dr Del Tubby shares her Hypnobirthing story; from her natural birth choice, the journey with her birth partner and the all important decision to teach others the techniques she has learnt.

When people think of hypnobirthing I think they imagine it is giving birth in some kind of weird trance like state where you aren’t really aware what’s going on. Most people’s knowledge of hypnosis is seeing the stage shows of the 80’s where volunteers were ‘made’ to do things on stage such as pretend to be a chicken! Three years ago when I first signed up for a Hypnobirthing course my friends reactions varied from ‘What is Hypnobirthing?’ to gentle mockery for doing something which was a bit ‘different’. There was even one lady at work who kept insisting it was going to be ‘really painful’ no matter what I did (she hadn’t actually had a child herself so had no idea!!)

Now that I have experienced natural childbirth and Hypnobirthed my two beautiful boys I know that I was not in a weird trance during my births, in fact I have never felt more in control, more alive or more powerful as I did at those times, there were times when I was in very deep relaxation and focus during the later stages of labour but I was very aware at all times. My births were amazing, euphoric, empowering, life-changing, bonding experiences. I didn’t pretend to be a chicken laying an egg at all!

Hypnobirthing is confidence

So, what is hypnobirthing? It’s natural childbirth through knowledge, preparation, breathing techniques, anatomy and physiology education, self hypnosis, visualisation, affirmations, positive thinking, fear release and relaxation. It is also about the relationship between a mother and her birth partner. To me Hypnobirthing equals confidence. It gave me the confidence to know that I could give birth naturally, this is what my body has been designed to do and if I could convince my interfering 21st century brain to take a back seat my body is perfectly capable. Hypnobirthing focuses on the fact that childbirth is normal, natural and healthy and should not be medicalized. Women know deep down how to give birth just as they know how to breathe or how to grow a baby from just 2 cells. Hypnobirthing leads to beautiful, natural, sometimes euphoric or pain free births which a woman and her partner can look back on with a sense of awe and satisfaction for the rest of their lives.

Hypnobirthing will reduce fear

When I first fell pregnant I felt really fearful of giving birth but as a Veterinary Surgeon I had seen hundreds of animal births and knew that they give birth naturally and confidently and never appear scared so why don’t humans have this ability? Of course we do but we all hear and see so many negative birth stories it is hard to remember this. We have all seen the terrible Eastenders births and heard about that friend of a friend who was in labour for 6 weeks and had a 24lb baby whose head was the size of a melon! All these things we hear build up in our minds to make us fearful, when we are fearful we produce adrenaline which blocks all the lovely natural pain relieving endorphins our body produces to help us through labour. Hypnobirthing aims to reduce these fears by educating the woman and her birth partner.

Hypnobirthing is knowledge

By the end of the course they know what to expect for each stage of birth and have practised the breathing/relaxation techniques which can be used for each part. They learn exactly what the uterus is doing to facilitate the birth of the baby and they learn the part played by Endorphins and Catecholamines leading up to and during labour. They are taught birth positions for home and the car and given birth preferences sheets to read through and choose what is important to them as individuals. All of this empowers them to be in control of their birth – and they can communicate this to their midwife to help them achieve their goals.

Hypnobirthing is about you, your birth partner & baby

For a long time the father was not welcome in the birthing room and had to wait outside, Hypnobirthing is the opposite of this and the birth partner is positively encouraged to play an important role and will approach labour confidently knowing what he/she can do to assist. My (not in touch with his feminine side) husband could not have been more supportive and nurturing and made my births the amazing experiences they were. We did it together and that is a wonderful feeling which has made us even stronger as a couple.

There is no single thing which defines Hypnobirthing, more it is a way of thinking and living both before, during and after the birth of the baby. Hypnobirthing has changed my life, whenever I think back to my births I think of a happy occasion without fear or stress where my body was given the freedom to do what it knew to do. I wouldn’t change a thing about my births, they weren’t necessarily perfect but they were to me, Hypnobrthing gave me the ability to accept what didn’t go totally to plan and have an amazing warm fuzzy feeling whenever I think back to them. I am so passionate that Hypnobirthing is the way forward that I have now been trained to teach the BeCalm Hypnobirthing method by birth guru Jackie Heffer-Cooke and am loving feeling that I am making a difference passing on what I have learnt.

Lots of Hypnobirthing love

Del x

If you would like to experience a more natural childbirth, Jackie Heffer-Cooke and Dr Del Tubby are available for group workshops and Jackie for individual consultations. To find out more visit our Hypnobirthing pages or call reception at The Orange Grove Clinic on 01603 631900.

When pregnant we will all ask ourselves which birth classes to attend. Norfolk’s leading birthing expert Jackie Heffer-Cooke fills in some of the blanks to help both mind and body feel ready for the most important job your body will ever do.Read more

There are 3 big mistakes Birthing Women make, Jackie knows, she made them first time around! But then Jackie discovered HypnoBirthing a process which includes birth hypnotherapy, relaxation and breathing techniques, to help her have an amazing, calm, controlled birth second time round. In fact she loved the methods behind hypnobirthing so much she now teaches others, in Norwich and Norfolk, how to do this too through her hugely popular HypnoBirthing and Birthing Tool Kit childbirth classes. Read more

You never know quite what you’re going to get during labour and things don’t necessarily go perfectly to plan. But it’s always lovely to hear that despite these hiccups, we’ve been able to do our bit to help Mum and Dad cope when plans change. The techniques that can be learnt during our birthing classes such as Birthing Toolkit, Hypnobirthing and Pregnancy Yoga can all help mums cope with the unknown, and we’re really pleased this was the case for lovely YogaBump ‘now mummy’ Penny! Massive congratulations! Here’s Penny’s birth story: Read more

A particularly lovely birth story from Chloe and Matt! This truly shows how amazing our Midwives are and how Hypnobirthing is supported at the Midwife Led Birthing Unit at the N&N. Love to hear the twinkly stars are being used to create a calm and relaxing environment for our mums. Here’s how baby Rafferty was welcomed into the world. Read more

Thanks for sharing your story Lisa! We’d like to welcome lovely Lenny into the world! So pleased to hear our birthing techniques such as a bit of ‘shaking the pear tree’, ‘golden thread breathing’ and the pregnancy yoga all helped! Read more

We all worry that our birth experiences won’t go quite to plan, and unfortunately these little babies often opt to enter the world a little more complicated than we hoped. I was so pleased to hear from Laura and Tom about the birth of baby Rueben who weighed in at a rather impressive 10lb 8oz! Read more